The Doctor and the Dictator
by idea outlet
Summary: The Doctor has faced men like this before. He has stared into the eyes of tyrants and monsters without fear. But what if The Doctor got it wrong? What if history got it wrong? What if this Dictator is not all he seems to be? Pre-Angels Take Manhattan.
1. Chapter 1

John Angel could hear the artillery getting closer. They were coming. Soon they would be here. He was not afraid of being hit by any of the artillery guns that were firing. He knew they wanted him alive. He just hoped he had time to finish it. And then, if there was more time, hide it. If there was not time, he would simply burn it. He sat down at his desk and continued to write.

_I hope that whomever may read this shall understand what was at risk, and what I was willing to do to preserve it. I have so many regrets, too many to count. But all the same, given a second chance, I would not have changed a thing. What happens to me after this is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is that peace will be restored. _

He stopped writing. Thoughts of his wife and children distracted him. He wondered if they were safe in their northern stronghold. The rebels would not kill women and children would they? No, they were better than that; better than him.

In all of John Angel's thought, he seemed to have completely ignored the noise. It grew louder and louder until finally, noticing it, he turned around to see a man who looked ridiculously out of place. A man wearing a bow tie.

He stood there, dumbfounded, for several minutes as this man stumbled out of the doorway into his study. He yelled back to someone else and a red-headed girl walked in behind him followed by another man, less ridiculous looking.

"Amy, next time I say don't touch anything, DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING!" said the ridiculous man. He had a british accent. But that was impossible! British immigrants had all been deported. "What? We got to meet Pharaoh Sneferu!" said the red-head who was apparently called Amy. "No, we were chased by the reanimated remains of Sneferu" said the less ridiculous man. "Well it was fun, wasn't it?" replied Amy. When no one gave her a response, she said, "Doctor?"

The ridiculous man was looking right at him now. John's first thought was that they're insane. His second was that maybe he is.

"Fun? Oh, yes in a sort of old-fashioned mummy movie meets a failed attempt by aliens to control ancient Egypt way, yes." The ridiculous doctor replied, without ever taking his eyes off of John.

Finally, John Angel found the only nerve he possessed, the nerve to speak. "Excuse me, who are you and what the Hell are you doing in my study?" The other two of the trio noticed him for the first time but the ridiculous man still just glared at him.

"I'm Amy, this is Rory, and this is the Doctor. So what's your name?" said Amy. Before John had any chance to respond, the ridiculous Doctor, still glaring at him, said, "I already know his name." Amy seemed surprised. "Oh, you two already know each other?" The doctor replied, "You could say I've heard of him."

_Of course they've heard of me! _ John thought. _How stupid could they possibly be? _"Well then what's his name then?" Rory asked. Before the Doctor could reply, John answered, "I am John Angel: founder and Grand Emperor of the NAE." Rory asked, "And what's the NAE?" The Doctor answered, "The North American Empire.


	2. Chapter 2

"We're leaving," said the Doctor. "Now wait just a minute, I-" John was cut off by the Doctor's stare. It was a stare of disgust; unrivaled, shameless disgust. "You," the Doctor said, "You are the kind of man that looks out for yourself and leaves everyone else behind for me to save and I can't save all of them. So on this day, don't tempt me by making me stay any longer or I will not hesitate, I will not blink an eye when I make an end of you because I know, firsthand what men like you do."

John was astonished. Fear gripped him. This man, this ridiculous man, had just threatened him. And John believed every word of what The Doctor said. John finally mustered up the strength to ask the stranger one more question. "And what do men like me do?" The Doctor, already walking out of the room, paused but did not turn around to say, "You make men like me."

The soldiers came from everywhere. Some descended by wire from the ceiling, some burst through doors and windows, others just seemed to appear out of thin air. Everyone was thrown off their feet, onto the floor, and for a moment, there was only silence. And the slow, almost careless thump of a pair of boots on the hard wooden floor. "You have no idea how long I have waited for this moment" said a man in a voice that was almost a whisper. "John Angel!" said the man, whose was now almost shouting, "you are under arrest for crimes against humanity. You will be tried, convicted, and sentenced by the newly formed North American Council."

"Captain Rex, what do we do with these people?" said the soldier pointing his gun at Rory. Captain Rex said, without ever taking his eyes off of John Angel, "Jackson, you were here to scout ahead. What do you think of these ones?" Another soldier materialized in the middle of the room. The soldier had a mess of black hair that went just below the eyebrows. They wore a bandana that covered their mouth and had a scar over their left eye, which seemed to be robotic. Jackson said, "I don't think they're Angelists. They must have been using the teleports when the line went down and they got dumped off here." "Yes! That is exactly what happened!" said Rory. "And since this is all just a big misunderstanding, I think that the best thing you can do is let us go!" said The Doctor as the soldiers began to lower their guns.

"I'm afraid we can't do that," said Captain Rex. "We're going to have to take you in for questioning and besides, the teleport systems are down. The only way out of here is either with us, or through a war-zone." The Doctor replied, "Well, I'm not very fond of war-zones but we do have somewhere important to be and we don't want to slow you do-" Before The Doctor could finish speaking, a voice came from the other room. "Captain, come look at this!" As The Doctor and Captain Rex went to the other room, they discovered several more soldiers studying the TARDIS.

"Oh, that's mine. It's...an antique! I...pushed it through the teleport with us and I refuse to go anywhere without it!" said The Doctor. "Very well," said Captain Rex, "Jackson!" Jackson entered the room and stood at attention. "Put this in a storage unit. We don't want pedestrian property being damaged now, do we?" said Captain Rex. Jackson placed a small device on the side of the TARDIS and after a second, the TARDIS disappeared in a flash.

At that moment, Amy and Rory entered. "Where, exactly, did the TARDIS go?" asked Rory. The Doctor replied, "It seems to have been transported to a storage facility with a short-range teleportation device. So, change of plans! It seems we're going to go with these nice men and watch a dictator get executed. Now doesn't that sound lovely?"

As they entered the ship, John was in anguish. He had failed to hide it. He didn't think he had the nerve to destroy it. Whatever the case, he could not let anyone know he had it. As he entered the ship, he thought of his family.


	3. Chapter 3

Amy, Rory, The Doctor, and Jackson were flying over the destroyed Virginia countryside when Amy had a realization. "Um, excuse me, Jackson is it? Why are we flying if we can use teleports?"

"Oh, well the long range teleports are down and the short-range teleport is just for cargo." An uncomfortable silence filled the room.

"That's a lovely accent," said Amy, trying to make a conversation, "Welsh?"

"My mother was. My father was a Canadian. When Angel took over, my father wanted us to move down to the Texas Republic with him. My mother refused to go so he went alone," said Jackson.

"Your mother sounds like a strong lady. Is she..." Amy hesitated to ask, "still alive?"

"I don't know. We went into hiding when the Deportation and Imprisonment Acts were passed. I got lucky. She didn't. She might have been deported or she might have not been. There's no way for me to know," said Jackson.

"Oh, sorry," said Amy

Jackson looked her right in the eye, "Don't be. It was a long time ago and it's not something I'm keeping private."

Rory leaned over and said to The Doctor, "So how did all this happen, anyway?"

"All of what?" asked The Doctor.

"You know, the North American Empire, the Texas Republic, dictators, and stuff" said Rory, "What happened?"

"The same thing that always happens," said The Doctor. His eyes stared at nothing in particular, remembering how many times this had happened just on Earth. Greece, Rome, France, England, Spain, Germany, Russia...

"Disagreement, anger, war, chaos, and then one man who promises to make it all go away for just a small price," The Doctor smiled, thinking how the same mistake could be made so many times, "Freedom."

The silence that followed could have lasted the rest of the ride. Captain Rex ended it with his entrance.

"Well, we won't be in Topeka for a couple hours. You should all probably get some sleep," he said.

Both Amy and Rory were confused by this.

"Topeka?" questioned Amy.

"A couple hours?" Rory exclaimed.

Captain Rex laughed in a deep rumble that filled the room. "I keep forgetting that you three are foreigners! Topeka, Kansas is the Capital of the New American Republic. That, however, is not known to the Angelists and we would like to keep it that way. We're flying towards Canada right now. In about an hour, we'll meet up with a convoy of decoy planes. After a half hour, we go dark. And then it's a five hour flight to Topeka."

Amy whispered to The Doctor, "I feel like they'd have invented faster planes by now."

"They did, but only the Angelists have access to them. The rebels raided museums to get weapons. This, I believe is the 2050 _Air Force 1. _They were using guns and planes that were decades old and yet they still managed to win," The Doctor said.

"Well, the girls will be in the far room and the boys will sleep out here," said Captain Rex.

"Well, I don't know about you boys, but I'm bushed! I'm off to bed," said Amy, getting up to walk towards her bedroom for the night.

"I'm pretty tired too. I think I'll call it a night," said Jackson, walking in Amy's direction.

"Wait a second, where do you think you're going?" said Rory, staring at Jackson. "I thought that room was only for women."

There was an awkward silence that should have lasted a while longer after that. It did not because Jackson lunged at Rory to give him the beating of a lifetime. Rory was knocked onto his back and Jackson would have given him several more punches had Captain Rex not interfered.

"Jackson! Stand down!" said Captain Rex, trying to hold her back. "Andrea! Lieutenant Andrea Jackson! If you do not stand down right now, I will discharge you!"

The bandana around her jaw fell off, revealing several more scars around her mouth and a strange metal plait that seemed to replace part of her throat. She stopped struggling against Rex's iron grip and he let her go. As soon as he did, she grabbed her bandana, put it around her face and evaporated into the air.

"Where'd he go?" said a still stunned Rory.

"**_She_** is just going to blow off some steam," Captain Rex said, "she'll be fine."

Rory sat there looking confused for another minute before he realized what had happened. "Wait...he's a...she's a...oh..."

Rex could not hold in his laughter any longer. First he let out a small giggle, then a slightly louder chuckle, and then he burst out in a loud tearful laugh which Amy and The Doctor joined in on. Rory just sat there, still stunned at the events that had just unfolded.

"Well, I think you all better get to bed," said Rex, only just recovering from his fit of laughing. "Tomorrow, we've got a dictator to convict."

"Wake up, you!" said The Doctor. It was the middle of the night. The Doctor had tried to sleep but he could not. Visions of hells created by men such as the one he was now looking at had haunted his thoughts. He walked right past the resting guard and looked at John Angel sleeping behind the bars of his cage. The Doctor gave him a malevolent look. "5 million," he said.

"What?" replied John.

"5 million," repeated The Doctor.

"I heard you, but 5 million what?" said the groggy former dictator.

"5 million lives lost outside of battle because of you," The Doctor said, continuing to glare at John with an unmatched disgust.

John sighed and thought that a cigarette would be nice right about now. "Can we not do this so early in the morning? I'm going to be prosecuted by the new government today and I'd rather not be confronted by everyone who has made it their own personal vendetta to make me feel as much guilt as possible. I realize what I've done and I don't need self-proclaimed heroes like you strutting around acting like they're better than me." John paused to see how astonished he had made his aggressor. To his own astonishment, the Doctor had held his gaze, unwaveringly. "You're like me," John said after studying The Doctor for a while.

"No, I'm really not," replied The Doctor.

John continued to study The Doctor when he said, "Yes, you are. I can see it in your eyes. You're the kind of man who will be ready to make the hard decisions when they come, for the greater good."

"I already have," said The Doctor. His hands were shaking. This dictator, who slaughtered millions, was comparing The Doctor and himself. The Doctor did not like to think what similarities there might be. "I made those decisions for the best of everyone, not just my own wants," said The Doctor, "I know your kind and we are not the same." The Doctor paused for a while, reflecting on how few men there were like the one in front of him, and yet too many still. "You're the tragic hero. You started out only wanting to help but no one would listen to what you had to say. So, you began getting rid of those who tried to stop you. After all, it was for the _greater good_. Within a year or two, you had done all that you planned to do and now you had the choice to step down and let it go. But just like every other man like you, once you had a taste of power, you couldn't get enough."

"Shut up!" said John.

"I'm not finished yet!" The Doctor said, righteous anger flowing through him. "You began to find more and more people were threats to your power. And soon, the line between enemy and friend blurred and that was when the insanity stepped in."

"I'm finished listening to this. I-" John was cut off by The Doctor.

"But I'm not finished talking!" said The Doctor, boiling over with an odd joy at belittling this tyrant.

"Yes you are! Do you want to know what the real difference between you and me is?" said John, in a rush of anger.

"What?" said The Doctor.

John suddenly looked uncertain. Whatever he had been going to say, he realized would reveal far too much to this man. John would not risk all of his work just to win an argument. "I'm the one in the cage, but you're the one who is trapped."

John's words rang through The Doctor's ears. That was all he really was; a madman trapped inside a blue box. But that wasn't what John meant. In fact, John didn't know what he meant by it. He had only said it because he thought it would end the conversation.

As The Doctor left, John said, "And Doctor," The Doctor paused to listen to John, "I was never in it for myself."

Once The Doctor was gone, Andrea Jackson materialized in the corner of the room. She held a picture of her mother in her left hand, a gun in her right.


End file.
